Memories Listings

I have loved the University Arboretum and its ancient oaks ever since my first visit to the University of California Davis Campus on a warm, dusty Picnic Day in 1958.

Now this treasure of U.C.D. is called University of California - Davis - Arboretum and Public Garden, but when it was begun on 29 February 1936, Cal Aggie Labor Day, this was the first and only arboretum of the University of California, hence the original name. What is now called UC Davis was then called “The University Farm”.

We have come a long way!

I painted my first watercolor in the Arboretum. It was terrible! What a mess! I later did a series of "Bridges in the Arboretum" that I believe were a lot better than that first one. I have been going to the Arboretum for inspiration for many years. During the last year during the Covid shutdown, when you could park anywhere for free, I spent many hours there sketching and painting with friends [masked and distanced].

During the summer, my friend, Valerie Baas, and I would sometimes spend the entire day at the arboretum. We would visit all of the animals, play hide and seek, cross every bridge, and look for wildlife. The campus was incredibly quiet then and we often had the place to ourselves for hours. We could bring a book and read or just stretch out on the grass and talk. It was an incredibly peaceful place and we were lucky to experience it.

As an undergrad at UCD, I put enormous pressure on myself to succeed in my studies. I'd spend entire weekends in Shields Library studying in the book stacks where I knew that I wouldn't be distracted. Looking back, I realize that the one thing that kept me focused wasn't really the quiet smell of old books and their silent presence on the shelves.

One evening around Picnic Day April 1974, my boyfriend Steve Marsden, RNR’73, and I were walking in the Arboretum. We hung out at the Arboretum a lot not only because it was so beautiful, but our majors Renewal Natural Resources and Environmental Planning & Management took us out there nearly every day.

As a student, the Arboretum was a place to be in nature and find a place of respite. My go to location was a bench way out at the west end. I would go to study, read, write or just think. My appreciation for the Arboretum grew and grew over the years, particularly when I first interned, and then worked as a student during both my undergrad and graduate days at Davis. Within a short time of being connected to the Arboretum, I aspired to work at a public garden.

I saw people fencing at the Ruth Storer Garden, February 13, 2011. Maybe they practice regularly  there, but this is the first and last time I've seen them.

I come to the Gazebo to relax in the shade or study. I like the open area and the view of the waterway and plants around me. It is my favorite place to go whenever I am feeling stressed.

I got married in the Arboretum in September 1986. Happy ever after!

I came to UC Davis for the plant sale. I took a long walk along the Arboretum creek, a ‘Zen’ walk. I found a new plant there: Leucophyllum frustescens. BEAUTIFUL! I came back to the sale and made my second purchase of the day. 

I am a naturalist for the UC Davis Arboretum and participated in the “Storytime Through the Seasons” series of family events. For this particular Native American-themed event, I was in the music section. I asked both the parents and children to participate and proceeded to teach a couple of Native American songs to the group, having them sing and dance, using Native American instruments like clappers.

I remember a University employee cultivating around the young redwood trees with a black Percheron draft horse in the early 1940’s. The arboretum certainly looked a lot hotter and drier that it does now!  

During the end of March or early April 1941, I saw the arboretum area brim-to-brim with brown flood water.

The Arboretum has always been a magical place for our family, filled with fond memories starting back in our beginning days of dating and courtship as students here at UC Davis in the mid 70’s. The love of my life and I would often picnic by “the duck ponds” near Mrak Hall. We even contemplated a simple outdoor wedding at the Wyatt Deck, as it is now called. However, in those early days, it was not so quaintly named!

When we moved into our new home, the land around the house was completely bare. During the last 23 years I have rarely missed an Arboretum plant sale and I have never left empty-handed. More often than not, my truck returned home loaded to the gills with native California plants, Mediterranean, South African, and Australian specimens. So that by now much of my garden resembles the Arboretum on campus.

Our family and friends dedicated a bench in memory of my father and brother, Robert and Michael Kelleher. The bench looks lovely and I can’t wait to rest on it as I watch the joggers, bikers and walkers pass by. I too worked for UC Davis and my father, brother, and I spent many days walking the Arboretum together. Of course, that was back in the days when the geese and ducks pooped all over the Mrak Hall lawn area and begged contributions from bag lunches, before the eggheads. I do confess to feeding the ducks and geese bread.